He was in the moment, thinking only of reaching their goal alive.
He spun and cut, dodged and weaved. His blades passing through one another without resistance, removing all the drawbacks that usually came with dual-wielding swords.
He had opted for dual wielding with his two short hilts; the max mana he could put into his spectral longsword split between the two was more than enough for the enemies they were facing.
“How much further?” Kai asked using the party chat, as almost nothing could be heard over the chorus of moaning undead.
“Not much… I think it's either some kind of artefact or relic that has been triggered by all the death energy permeating the local eather, but-” Syl fired off a rapid staccato of mana bolts, their explosions somehow directed out and away from them into the press. “But, if we are really unlucky, it’s a lich or some kind of undead overlord. Please, Atheos, not a lich…”
Two hours earlier they had stepped through the arch, expecting to be greeted by another soldier, ready to give them their return stones and an explanation of what was expected of them.
That turned out to be a foolish assumption.
This was the second time they stepped through this particular arch; the first time everything had been laid out neatly for them. They just had to defend the battery for as long as they could, then use the return stones they were given when things got to be too much.
Nice and simple.
This time, however, they found themselves on a road in the middle of a barren wasteland that led up to an eerily silent village.
With no one in sight for miles in any direction, they did the obvious thing and headed along the road towards that village.
Approaching the village, it became clear that either side of the road they walked upon had once been crops of some kind. Only now the rough, broken, dry, lumpy soil showed signs that the last crop had been recently scoured by flame.
When they finally reached the village, nothing greeted them but silence.
Besides the occasional outer building showing some minor signs of fire damage, the detritus scattered in the streets indicating the village had been hastily abandoned.
“Should we spread out, maybe search for clues?” Kai asked, unable to hide his apprehension as he looked about for any sign of life, any clue as to what they were meant to do.
He knew there would be something, some threat; they were in a dungeon doing some kind of divinely mandated test. But he saw nothing, and yet he couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched.
Syl and Alicia looked at him like he was an idiot.
“You want to split the party?” Syl scoffed, “You never split the party, not unless you have no other choices.”
She looked about, then closed her eyes for a bit, presumably using her mana sense to see if she could detect anything obvious.
Her face scrunched up, and she let out the breath she had been holding. “Nothing, I can’t detect an ounce of life here; what’s more, the ambient mana just feels wrong. You two stay here; I'll go scout out the buildings.” Syl said as she turned into a wisp and zipped off, rapidly darting from one building to the next.
“This is splitting the party,” Kai mumbled over the chat.
“This is not splitting the party; I can’t be separated from you. Even if I move to the limit of my range, I’m still right there with you, able to bring my projection back to you with a thought. You know this, so shush.”
“What about in that test? You were out of range then?” Kai asked, remembering how odd that had been, coupled with the spooky setting they currently found themselves in, giving him goosebumps.
“To use one of your own terms, Kai, that was system fuckery; we were never actually separated, just out of phase as far as the dungeon and the party interface were concerned. Had I wanted, one thought and I would have been at your side.”
“Then why didn’t you? You were an emotional wreck because of Kain; why not come to me?”
Syl went silent; he would have thought something had happened to her if not for the fact her status on the party overlay was fine, and he could see her as she continued to zip around the village.
When he looked over to Alicia, she was chewing on her lip. Locking eyes, she made a decision and approached him to whisper in his ear, “It is because she would have been weak if she ran to you… Syl needed to prove something, both to that woman and to herself.”
It was then Syl chose to return; appearing in a flash, she made both Kai and Alicia jump.
She gave the two of them a sidelong look of suspicion.
“This place was evacuated in a hurry, but that was some time ago; I’ve looted anything I thought we could trade back to the dungeon master. Quite a few items were hidden away; I think the villagers thought they were coming back. I found something the both of you will want to see.” Syl pointed down through the village. “Someone barricaded themselves inside one of the buildings; unfortunately, they are long dead, but they are the only people I could find; it’s worth investigating.”
“Lead the way, oh beautiful spectre,” Kai joked.
“That sounds terrible.”
“It’s better than you calling me meat suit all the time. And it fits the new theme. You know, spectre’s shroud, spectral blades and… spectral girlfriend?” Kai said, testing the waters; they hadn’t actually put a name on what they were. “Is spectral armour a thing?”
Syl rolled her eye, but a smile crept onto her face. “Yes, spectral armour is a thing; it just doesn't have the same effects as the shrouds… and I like spectral soul mate.”
Last night when he had tried to explain the sword technique he was using was purely mana control and thus didn’t have a name, Syl informed him he was an idiot.
She then sat and explained how the system named things. It was complicated, but the gist of it came down to localisation.
If the system did not notify him he had learnt an existing skill or technique, then whatever he was doing had not yet been discovered or defined within the local area as a skill, technique, etc.
When Kai revealed that his informal master, Inego, had shown his dislike for his title of Ghostblade, things clicked into place for Syl, and she insisted the man had intentionally misled him in a clumsy attempt not to pass the moniker onto Kai by informing him the technique had no name and was just mana control.
To prove her point, she had them all throw out some name suggestions.
Soul blade, or alternatively soul sword, was rejected as while mana was stored and created within his core, which was a manifestation of his soul, the blade itself was not connected to his soul.
Mana blade or sword was rejected for being too reductive.
Astral was floated, but the idea ultimately sank when Syl pointed out there was an astral realm and the technique had nothing to do with that.
Phantom Blade was the top contender for a while, at least until Kai thought about one of his recent acquisitions.
His spectre’s shroud.
That part pinned, they discussed if it should be something like a spectre's sword or spectral blades. When he pointed out that there was a possibility of him using the technique to create something other than a sword, like perhaps a dagger or possibly even an axe if the mood struck him, they moved away from the term sword altogether.
They settled on calling his technique Spectral Blades.
He would have to just ignore the fact he could make things like hammers and clubs with the technique, as that was neither his style nor his focus…
At least that was until Kai thought about it some more.
There was no reason for such a distinction, creating an implied restriction.
In the end he decided he would call his swords spectral blades, but the actual technique he used to make them would be called something more robust.
That affirmed in his mind he got a notification from the system.
New skill discovered and defined.
( Nascent ) Spectral manifestation.
You have learnt to take hold of your own mana, manifesting it into ‘spectral’ mana constructs.
Using this technique, you have learnt to form deadly arcane blades, though you know many other possibilities remain as this technique abandons standard magical doctrine and the use of restrictive spell forms, constructs and other common techniques.
Few among the multiverse practice a variation of this technique; even fewer have mastered it.
Achievement unlocked.
Technique Pioneer.
You have defined a technique currently unknown among your local cluster of the multiverse.
Will you continue to develop and refine the technique, making it truly unique, or is it doomed to obscurity?
Now that he had the spectre's shroud, used spectral blades and had a spectral woman with him at all times, he had worried he would pick up some kind of spectral nickname like ‘Ghostblade.’
Actually… now that he was thinking about it again, being known as the spectral blade, or something shorter like spectre, wouldn’t be so bad; the only problem was he would have to lean into the spectral thing.
He had never had a cool nickname in his life, and despite changing his name already and finding that that stuck, a good title still appealed to him.
Reaching the blockaded house, Syl was guiding them before he could bring up his burgeoning plans of requesting some more spectral stuff when next they met the dungeon master.
The door, barred from the inside, was covered in scratch marks and a hundred muddy, bloody handprints that marred the wood.
“It definitely looks like someone was trying to get in from the outside, which raises the question, how do we get in?” Kai asked as he banished his idle thoughts.
“We’re only going to blow the bloody doors off!” Syl said with a goofy smile and a bad Cockney accent.
He gave her a look. “Just how much of Earth’s media did you ingest in your spare time?”
“Only a few hundred years worth.” She shrugged, “Not my fault I’m cultured and you’re not.”
There was a subtle thrum-trim-thrum sound, and Alicia coughed to get their attention. “Gift thinks he can do it without, and I can’t stress this enough, Gift, without destroying the structure of the building.”
“You might want to try taking out the hinges and where the lock-“
Thrim-thrum-thrim-thrim, Alicia giggled, “Gift says he has already assessed the target, and he asks you please let him show you what he can do, without making unnecessary suggestions,” Thrim, Alicia put her hand to the side of her mouth and whispered, “It’s more impressive that way.”
“Fair enough, Gift, impress me,” Kai said as he and Syl both moved over to stand behind Alicia.
Alicia pulled back, drawing Gift and firing off an arrow in one swift movement.
The arrow split into four, each connecting with the frame of the door, bursting with no sound into spheres of golden white light; after a couple of seconds, the spheres disappeared, taking everything they had touched with them.
The rolled forward and slammed to the floor, the furniture that had been propped against it coming crashing down after it.
Kai and Syl both whistled their appreciation.
“Remind me to never be one of Gifts assessed targets,” Kai joked.
Thrim-thrim, ”He says you’re too stationary when you fight; you need to keep moving if you don’t want a ranged attack to pin you down... or kill you outright.”
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“Kai, I would listen to them; together they are our team's ranged experts after all.”
A soft, happy chime rang out, “He thanks you for your confidence.”
Syl led them into the dusty home, taking them to another door. She paused. “Give me a moment; this one has something propped against the handle on the other side.”
Gift chimed.
“No need for any fancy arrows on this one; it’s just a stick. I can get it free with a telekinetic nudge.”
Syl phased her head through the door, her butt wriggling in the air for a bit before the clatter of wood falling down some stairs could be heard a moment later.
Popping back out, she grinned, “It was wedged in there pretty good, but I got it.”
“If the door's not locked and it was just something wedged under the handle… why not just remove the bit of wood by looting it?” Kai suggested, “Just saying it might have been easier; we probably could have looted all the furniture barricading the other door while we were at it.”
Syl's eyes narrowed. “No spooning for you tonight.”
“Oh noo~ whatever will I do?” Kai replied, his voice monotone, as he looked over to Alicia.
“What?”
“How jealous do you think Syl would get if we cuddled outside the domain tonight, you know, just a little bit of spooning between the two of us, no other expectations, just nice warm cuddles?”
Alicia actually took his question seriously, adorably chewing her lip as she looked between the two of them, before finally asking, “No expectations?”
Syl gave Alicia a viciously knowing smile.
“I- I think she would encourage it,” Alicia's ears twitched nervously.
“Nice try, Kai, but I’ve already poisoned the fruit,” Syl said in a sing-song voice.
Kai didn’t have a clue what that meant, but it made Alicia blush.
He just sighed and opened the door; walking down the steps, he got to the bottom and turned to see Alicia still standing at the top of the stairs, looking down, clearly hesitating to follow.
Kai looked about, thinking he had missed something, seeing nothing amiss but three corpses; he called back up the stairs, “You coming?”
“It is pitch black down there,” Alicia called from the top of the stairs. “I can just about make you out, and that is it.”
Kai looked about again; it was dark, but far from hard to see. “It’s pitch black down there, like, fetch me a torch, or I’m not coming down into the creepy dark cellar, pitch black?”
Alicia nodded, looking at him in confusion.
Syl drifted down after Kai, “I can see too, but… but I guess I’ve never really noticed the dark, at least not to the point I couldn’t see anything.”
“So this isn’t the spectre’s shroud enhancing my vision?”
“I can see your glowing eyes, both of you; if I didn’t know better, I would have thought you were cratchers, the light catching your eyes as you stalk your prey at night.”
“Sorry, what’s a cratcher?” Kai asked before he could stop himself.
“Finally!” Alicia squealed, “I finally got you! Ooh em, a cratcher is a big feline ambush predator; it has a natural ability to blend into shadows, only its eyes remaining visible.” She grinned.
Hmm, “Natural ability, like a racial trait.” It had always struck him as odd that his eyes seemed to glow for no reason, “Maybe we have some trait that lets us both see in the dark, but I still don’t understand why our eyes glow; it doesn’t seem necessary for improved night vision."
Kai got a system notification.
Racial Trait Discovered.
Arcane eyes of the
His head buzzed as he felt out the information within the notification, a sharp stabbing pain building behind his eyes until the notification disappeared. A new one is appearing in its place.
Arcane eyes of the High’vei.
Your eyes are arcane; infusing them with mana enhances them beyond the capabilities of the mundane, typically beyond the mundane.
“I think we know why our eyes happen to glow,” Syl said, holding her head.
“How did we not realise this until now?” Kai rubbed his chin in thought.
Recovering from the painful notification, Syl shrugged, “Don’t look at me; I’ve technically always been a… High'vei. I didn’t have any other context to go by. What’s your excuse?”
That caught Kai off guard, and he had to think about it as Syl flared into a little wisp, her cyan flames filling the room with light, Alicia joining them at the bottom of the steps a moment later.
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever actually been in the dark since I went through my race change. The auction room, the first dungeon areas, and the forest are all lit in some way. I mean, I slept in the forest, but it was a bright night with all the stars, so I didn’t think it was too dark. The domains have a constant golden hour, so that doesn’t count. I’ve had no point of reference to notice the change… apparently I can…” Kai said as he directed a trickle of man into his eyes.
The additional mana was eagerly soaked up by his eyes; the admittedly dim room coming into a much sharper focus, the shadows creeping back even further, everything shifting slightly as the mana in the air gave everything fresh perspective.
“Oh Syl, you have to try putting mana into your eyes.”
There was a flash, and Alicia squeaked as the cellar was cast back into darkness.
He hadn’t even activated his mana sight, but there it was, mana trailing through the air, shifting like smoke as he waved his hand in front of him. “Mana sight seems a bit redundant now, don’t you think?”
Syl was squinting. “Kai, I can’t infuse my projections eyes like that."
“Please, Syl, I don’t like the dark.” Alicia whispered.
“Oh, yes, sorry, I forgot.”
There was a flash of light, and Kai realised Syl's theatrical transformation cast not just light but mana out into the room.
“Yeah, sorry Alicia, I guess a dark cellar in an abandoned town during a dungeon test isn't the best time for me to be experimenting.” He paused and asked Syl through their connection, ‘Alicia is scared of the dark? Anything I should know?”
Syl didn’t look at him when she replied, ‘We all have trauma; it’s not my place to say, but she will be fine so long as it’s not pitch black, and I mean pitch black.’
Kai nodded, “So these are the only corpses in the whole village.”
“Besides the local graveyard… And no, I’m not diving down into the dirt to double-check.”
Kai hadn’t actually thought about it, but now that she had mentioned it… “You looted all the houses. Don’t people tend to bury the dead with…” He shivered. “No, you're right; let's leave the dead be. I know it's a dungeon and all this is technically fake, but grave robbing still doesn't sit right.”
Alicia coughed, “What if the item needed to complete a dungeon scenario is in a grave, or there is something rare and valuable buried away? I agree with you, but I think you need to keep an open mind when you find yourself inside a dungeon such as this."
Syl grimaced just thinking about it. “Alicia's not wrong; we should check these guys for clues, and then I'll go check the graveyard… Dungeon architects like to think they are clever, hiding things away. It is uncommon but not unknown for things to be buried away with the dead.” Syl raised her voice. “I just hope the dungeon master sees our logic and does not. I repeat, they do not penalise us for exploiting a scenario we know to be a temporary fabrication. After all, if he really hates Atheos so much, wouldn’t he want us to find her secrets?”
Ignoring her theatrics, Kai walked up to the first corpse; in the final stages of decay, the body was reduced to bone, cartilage, dry skin and hair. It wore the same armour those soldiers wore in their defence against the kobolds.
The corpse was slumped against the wall, a sword and shield propped against the wall to its side.
Spotting a crumpled piece of paper in the man's hand, he apologised to the deceased and took the obvious clue, uncrumpling it to see it was a hastily written note. He read it aloud for the two women hovering over him.
“We are trapped, ran out of food and water two days ago despite our rationing. Andarogan is sick, so we do not dare use our return stones lest we spread the plague to the refugee camps. We were so close to completing our mission; the source is nearby. But the mist, they came with the mist; we had no choice but to flee. Talancia, forgive me, my love; I cannot return…”
Hmm, “a bit vague, but I think we need to find this source, whatever it is. That or use the return stones before whatever is in this mist overwhelms us… Same principle as the first test, just different conditions.” Syl said
Kai nodded in agreement as he checked the corpse's neck.
Standing up again, he held out a return stone for the others to see as he looked over to the other two bodies, then at his team, then back to the bodies.
Syl and Alicia didn’t move.
“You’re really going to make me do the gross stuff?”
Syl bobbed up and down in agreement as Alicia summoned a little metal disc from storage. “I’ll clean them up with my charm just to be safe.”
Not finding any other clues, Kai recovered another two return stones, Alicia making a point to clean all three before she took one for herself.
They looted the weapons but otherwise left the bodies as they were; Kai even returned the note. It wasn’t necessary with this being just a dungeon scenario, but it felt wrong taking the man's last words.
As they left the cellar, Kai had a thought that was worth sharing: “These return stones are the shards we need, so there’s nothing stopping us; we can leave right now… The only thing is that we would lose out on assessment points. But if we’re lucky, it would probably mean we can do the next two arches today. Get out of the dungeon a day sooner…”
“What’s one more day? Besides, I still feel cheated; I want a chance to get something for myself. I’m sick of skill books and tomes. So I want as many assessment points as we can get.”
Thrim-thrim-thrim, “Gift says he is not done proving himself; he wants some targets.”
“I was just putting it out there. So what’s next? We check the graveyard for some mystical long-lost items, then Syl uses her super useful mana sense to see if she can track down this source.”
They got to the front door.
“No… I think we should run.”
“What? Why?”
Syl pointed out through the door to where a thick mist rolled in between the buildings.
“Because that isn’t mist.”
Two hours later, they kept track of each other using the party system; Alicia was never more than a few meters away from him as she picked off the targets Syl kept marking deep within the mist.
Kai was the spear tip, taking down the slower undead that just so happened to get between him and the direction Syl was steering them.
His eyes burning with infused mana, he could just about see through the vapour that was not; he could only imagine how bad this was for Alicia, for an archer it must have been like fighting with a severe handicap, yet not once did he hear her complain, the snap of her bowstring a constant reminder she was still fighting by his side.
Syl, for her part, was concentrating on keeping them alive as she followed the trace of magic that allowed the dead to cross over from the realm of the dead.
“Wraith!” Syl called out, “Marking it purple, too fast for me to hit with mana bolts.”
A purple mark appeared off to Kai's left.
“Yup, it sensed your challenge stone, Kai; it’s rushing straight for you… in five, four, three.”
Kai watched as the purple mark headed straight for him.
“Two…”
He readied himself.
“Barrier!”
The wraith wailed as it collided with the barrier Syl slammed into place between it and Kai.
He didn’t wait; he swung, pulsing his blade with an infused strike, a blade of fortified mana striking forward from his spectral blade to rip the wraith caught in Syl's barrier apart.
“Another one, purple!”
“I got this one.” Alicia called at the same time she snapped off a shot of golden light; the purple marker in the distance disappeared from his heads-up display before the wraith it was attached to could locate Kai and his challenge stone.
He had mistakenly thought his spectre's shroud would make him hard to spot or easy to ignore; he still wasn’t clear on what it actually did, but it turned out whatever it did didn’t matter much as the dungeon denizens could somehow detect his challenge stone regardless.
The wraiths that started showing up about an hour after the mist enveloped them were especially tenacious, detecting him at insane distances and coming straight for him at a hateful pace.
They either had to detect them in time so that Alicia could take them out from a distance or work together to stop it in its tracks before it could latch onto him.
They were just lucky the three of them used arcane attacks, as Syl had explained wraiths were nigh invulnerable to the physical.
That did raise an issue in Kai's mind: how would he handle something resistant to his spectral blades and mana bolts?
“Shit!” Syl cussed.
“What?”
“The source just moved… It's coming this way, taking its time, but it’s definitely coming this way.”
When the mist had rolled in and the moans and groans of the living dead had started, Kai had assumed they were dealing with zombies. He had referred to the sickness in the dead man's note and raised his concerns about being bitten.
Syl couldn’t contain her amusement; she teased him for a good five minutes before letting him know they weren't dealing with mundane zombies but plain old arcanely charged undead crossing over from a parallel realm where the dead do not die.
As if that made any sense.
The mist wasn’t actually mist but a distortion of the membrane between dimensions.
Something on this side was creating a distortion, allowing the undead to cross over, calling them here.
Whatever it was that beckoned the dead, Syl could feel it, and to a lesser extent when he infused his eyes to the point it almost hurt, Kai could see it. Faint trails of mana pulsed from each moving corpse off into the distance.
And they had been following them for a good two hours now.
According to the hastily scribbled note, the source was close. The issue with close is it was a relative term. Especially when you were surrounded by enemies and blinded by mist, fighting for your life.
“What’s the plan? Do we head it off? Or buckle down here?”
“We can’t stop moving or we will get overwhelmed. The ones we have been stringing out will catch up and swarm our position. And I have no way to account for what's on the other side, which I promise you will be worse than anything we’ve seen over here.”
“Okay, we head it off, clear out as much as we can between us, then we kite it, whatever it is.”
“I'm hoping for a demilich, but to draw in this many undead, that’s unlikely.”
Thrum, “I am not asking,” thrim-thiiiim, “fine! Gift wants to know what you mean by kite and if he will be involved.”
“Oh, it’s a gaming term; it’s a strategy that’s perfect for Gift. He will love it.” Syl said, as there was a flash in the mist followed by a boom, “I can level again! Give me a sec.”
Alicia groaned.
“Your telling me, I feel like I’m about to burst. But the moment one of us stops, the other is in trouble; we were lucky with that first level up; there is no chance now,” Kai said.
“I’m quickly running out of marks.”
Kai spun around and used mana mark on anything that moved; he was nowhere near as good as Syl had gotten; she was at the point she just had to feel something's mana to mark it. He, however, lacked actual mana sense and had to look at and apply his intent to mark something, which, of course, meant his range was limited, and it took him more time than he liked.
Spinning back round to bifurcate a looming skeleton soldier, he scowled as he watched it wither and rapidly decay, the bones turning to dust as they were pulled back to the other side.
“I wish we could loot these; think of all the assessment points we are losing, ”Kai thought about all the points he had gained from trading in his loot from grinding. “Oh shit, I think I actually miss wretchlings.”
“I’m back, oh sh- wraith! three, two…”
Kai spun; he had no marker.
“Barrier!”
A sickening wail called out just behind him; too close for comfort, he turned to see the wraith's claw reaching out for his face as it tore itself free of Syl’s barrier.
Stepping back, he took its arm off; stepping forward, he cleaved its ghostly form in two, each piece vanishing into the mist from where it came, a rough black crystal falling to the ground from where it had just been.
He looted it and moved on to the next zombie, a little green goblin this time. How nostalgic.
These crystals being the one thing left behind by the undead he could actually take, the annoying part being they rarely dropped.
Known as monster cores, he had never noticed them before, looting everything to then be automatically dismantled in his domain; they just hadn’t come to his attention.
He had only learnt about them when he had traded with the dungeon master, Syl and Alicia both insisting he hold onto the few hundred assorted cores of various types and qualities for when they were outside.
There was another boom. “All clear, no wraiths or abominations.”
“Syl, I hate to say it, but that was too close; no more levelling; let the extra essence repair your core. Actually… if Alicia has time to level, she better do it; she can't overflow the way I can.”
“I think I can hold.” Alicia said, her tone uncertain.
“No,” Syl snapped off a few mana bolts, “we're good; we will cover you.”
Kai turned and headed in Alicia’s direction; reaching her, he tapped her on the shoulder. She immediately dropped to one knee and started levelling up.
It should take less than a minute, but in a fight like this when they were pressed on all sides, that was a long time.
By the time Kai had taken care of two zombies, a skeleton warrior and some weird undead kobold that liked to pounce out of the mist, Alicia was done.
She stood up, raising Gift to take out the growing number of marks laid out by Syl.
“Thanks, I needed that; I had two levels of essence built up.”
“Two levels?” Syl said appreciatively, “Damn. I thought I had caught up; your turn, Kai; make it quick.”
Kai just grunted; there was no way he had the time; he could already see more undead than normal circling them. “We’ve been stationary too long. Pick a direction and give me a marker.”
A big gold mana mark appeared in the distance as Syl said, “Best if we can fight it there; the ground feels open and level. Alicia won't have to worry so much about her footing in this mist.”
“Right, Alicia on me. Gift, keep doing impressive shit. Syl, mark the source as soon as you can,” Kai said as he moved to clear out a cluster of zombies between him and their new bearing.
“The source, It’s resisting mana mark. Give me a sec!”
Kai watched a chunk of his mana disappear as a big black mark appeared off in the distance.
“Got it marked… oh no, that was a bad idea.”
“Why?” Thrum? “Why?” Kai, Gift and Alicia all asked in unison.
“Because the source is bee-lining straight for us now as fast as a wraith, ready your return stones; this could get ugly.”